Walk in Wisdom -- Church

There's a big decision ahead of us. Who should I marry? Where should I go to school? Should I take the job? Should I make that move? What should I do with my retirement? We typically think that that's the most important question to ask in those big decisions. But I want to challenge you today that I think there's actually more important decisions that we need to ask that question towards. Those little small decisions. Today should have been the last time this morning should be the last time you asked that question God As I wake up and start my day. What is your will? for my life Well, what would you like me to do today? That would best please you worship you. How can I be be used today? You see I think the little small decisions I The automatic decisions, the ones we actually don't think about, evaluate, or pray about, those are the most important decisions we make every day. They form habits. They're forming our character. They're determining who we become. And I think we're going to see a passage that's really challenging how we live every single day, hour, minute, and every day. Our minute is precious. An opportunity to worship the one who is truly worthy. So there's big decisions and there's every single day we should be asking, God, what is your will for my life? As we seek to answer that question, I believe it's best summarized in a simple statement, to glorify God and enjoy him forever. As we think about what we're going to do and how we're going to do it, it's all about worship. We're in Ephesians chapter five, but I want to bring us back to Ephesians four. We're called to walk worthy now of that calling. If you're new to us, this morning we've been walking through the book of Ephesians. Chapters one through three are really what God has done for us, what he's declared to us, and how he saved us. And then chapter four is how we live, and we've looked at walking worthy, walking in love, walking as children of the light, and now we're gonna look at walking in wisdom. As you heard Cheryl read the text, walk as wise, not unwise. Not as fools, but understanding the will of the Lord. And then there's numerous ways in which he addresses us and exhorts us to walk in wisdom. Wisdom leads to power, praise, thanksgiving, and obedience. That's a simple summary of the message. Wisdom leads to power, praise, thanksgiving, and obedience. Let's look at verses 15 and 16. Walk in the will of the Lord. Really a way we could translate this first phrase from the Greek would be watch out, behold, keep your eyes open, how you walk, Not as unwise, but as wisest. By definition, wisdom is watching. Wisdom has a certain self-awareness about it. Pay careful attention. It reminds us of 1 Timothy 4.16, when Paul tells Timothy, watch yourself and your doctrine. Be aware and be mindful. So the first thing I think we can see is that wisdom simply just has a self-awareness. And then jump down to verse 17. I believe these two parallel each other. Unwise do not be unwise and do not be foolish. The opposite of foolish here is understand what the will of the Lord is. If we're going to walk worthy of the calling, if we're going to walk in a way that pleases God, we have to first understand what He wants. And one of the great truths that we get from the Bible that someone like Chris read earlier, God is very clear as to what He expects of us. There are mysteries in Scripture, but what He expects is just very clear. And so when we ask God, what is your will for my life? It's very clear. Don't be drunk, be filled with the Spirit. Give thanks always. Sing with one another the praises of Jesus in your heart. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Now essential to wisdom is this other phrase that we skipped, or in verse 16, making the best use of the time because the days are evil. Wisdom sees that time is precious. Wisdom sees that life is precious and wisdom says I I want to live the best life possible According to to what God has said. I want to make sure that that I'm using my life. Well Really the phrase if you have a King James Version the redeeming actually captures what's going on here better and And it really captures this putting off and putting on, redeeming the time. Stop wasting your life and your time. Use it for the things that are good. The days are evil. Repent of those ways we use this most valuable resource, time. And use it well. Kind of amazing. We have one life. You don't get a redo. We only have so much time to spend here on this earth And that that that life is so precious that God has given to us And we're so prone to use it for things that God did not create it for We're prone to use it for idolatry rather than worship What we hear here is a challenge Make sure you're not just investing in good things. Make sure you're not investing in evil things. Make sure you're investing your most valuable resource, your time and energy, your life, in the best thing. Life has been given to us by God. When we go back to Genesis, we can see how precious life is. He breathed his own life into our lungs. And then Jesus himself comes down to live the life we could not live so he could die on our behalf. So he could give us a new life. Then he gives us the Holy Spirit. Indwelling new life inside of us. This is not just precious life. This is redeemed life, Christian. Recognize how we spend it matters. It's a precious gift. So I ask a simple, clear, reflective question here. Are you investing your time well? Are you paying attention as to how much time you waste in laziness or self-absorption? One of the really good tests to determine where is my time most valued, when you're putting together your agenda or your calendar, what are the things you put in pen versus pencil? What are the things that you're just never gonna skip? Maybe it's the big game or the concert, but everything else is fun. Well, what is it that thing that you're always gonna be putting in pen that's what's most important to you? What is the thing that's in pencil? Eh, that isn't as valuable. Are the things of God in pen? A brother recently asked me, and he was wrestling with his own kind of growth in Christ. He said, you know, I've just not had a lot of aha moments in my Christian life. I was like, yeah, me neither. The Christian life doesn't hand out certificates as you overcome things. It's a gone, gradual process that's void of participation trophies and certificates. But I do think there's a way in which you can see change in that When spiritual disciplines are no longer decisions, they're habits. When you don't wake up and you ask, am I going to go to the Bible study? Or do you wake up and say, am I going to pray today? When you stop doing that and you just know automatically, this is in pen. This is my commitment to God for his glory and my growth. These spiritual disciplines are what I'm committed to and they're not decisions, they're commitments. I think those are aha moments. I believe Augustine defined the wise life well. It's having your priorities in proper order. Having your priorities in proper order. Or another way, he said it, having your affections in proper order. Loving that which is most lovely. with the greatest love, reserving your greatest love for He who is greatest, God, and then everything else trickles down, but our problem is we typically want to love everything else more. As anyone with this wise life and redeeming the time, I wanna make just a simple statement. I don't think it's actually that novel or even challengeable, but we're busy. We're too busy. Trying to fit in everything that this world says we're supposed to be doing. And it leaves us wondering and not committing to the best thing. So this is a good opportunity to just wonder and reflect. What am I busy about? And is it really worth it? What am I busy about and is it really worth it? One of the great dangers of the gospel and living as Christians is that we take gifts for granted, don't we? That which is given, we take for granted. Whenever it's free, we just think, oh, that's fine, I'll take it as it comes, and here we are. We have been given an invitation, a call to worship by God himself that says, come by the blood of my own son and behold me and worship me and know me and my love. And because it was free to us, we take that call to worship for granted. We don't realize how valuable it is. And we also forget so easily, it came at a great cost. Christ had to be crushed as a perfect man, as God Himself, the Son of God, for our sin. Coming to worship is not cheap. It's a glorious invitation. Finally, something we look at over and over again, I hope, as we consider walking in wisdom, that most basic principle from Proverbs, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. As we want to think about wisdom and what it means for us to walk in this wisdom, we'll see it actually ends with the fear of the Lord, and here we're going to make it very clear, it begins with the fear of the Lord. Our second point, first it was walk in the will of the Lord, and that's the main, the main declaration, and then he gives us very specific instructions. Walk in the will of the Lord by being filled with the Spirit. Actually, the first thing he says is, don't get drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit. It's interesting that the very first thing he's going to talk about is what you don't do, and then we see here a wonderful put off and put on. Don't get drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit. These two things are in contrast. How is this the first thing Paul is going to talk about? Well, the best way I can make sense of this is the first thing Paul wants to talk about is we gotta ask, why do people get drunk? Why do people have this habit of getting drunk? I believe it's most likely almost all the time, if not all the time, because they're unhappy. When there's an unhappiness, there's a numbing of that unhappiness, and that's why you get drunk. If we actually think about what wisdom is, wisdom is seeking to live the happy life. Throughout scripture, blessed is the man is found throughout the wisdom's literature. Happiness and wisdom go hand in hand, and getting drunk is seeking to numb our unhappiness. Really being drunk represents how we cope with our foolishness, our insecurities, and our disappointments. We numb our senses as a coping mechanism. And what God's word is calling us out here is that this is an unhealthy coping mechanism. So Paul calls us to a wisdom. Stop using this unhealthy coping mechanism and put on, do something else. Well, you have not getting drunk, and typically as we think about not getting drunk, we think of sober. He doesn't say sober though, does he? Sober is content, clear. He doesn't just say be content and clear. He points us all the way to the other side. Be filled with the Holy Spirit. Anytime the word filled's been used with Ephesians, I think it's always been pointing to a power. Be empowered by God himself who enlightens your eyes, have your senses at full strength because God Almighty is empowering them to live and enjoy life. You cannot be watchful when you're drunk. No, it lessens the senses. But being filled with the Spirit, it makes you fully aware of God and yourself. It leads you to a happiness and a contentment. Now, let's be very explicit here. He says getting drunk with wine. I think we could, you know, by implication, he includes alcohol and beer and other things that would inebriate. I think we could also go a little further and say there's either very unhealthy or healthy coping mechanisms that Paul would want us to call out here. Entertaining ourselves to death. Physical exercise. Indulging in food or resisting food. Pursuing fulfillment in sex, shopping, success at work, popularity, or just good old self-righteousness. Indulging in children, sports, social life. These are all things that we can use to try to cope. Some are healthier than others. But none of them really lead to the happy life Christ purchased for us. Let's face it. Happiness is hard to come by in this world, isn't it? Happiness is hard to come by. Because even when I have good things, boy, do I like to grumble about them. They're not good enough. That this world is full of pain, difficulty, disappointment. We can stop coping with unhappiness. Well, we can seek the life that Christ purchased for us by being filled with the Spirit, which really is saying, continue to be filled with the Holy Spirit. It isn't some kind of one-time filling. It's rightly submitting to God and His Word. It means we repent of sin which quenches the Spirit, and we seek to be obedient so that we're full, full of the happiness that God purchased for us. So the first thing is, Really focus on happiness, I think. Stop putting those, put those things off. Stop doing those things that you're coping with unhappiness and be filled with the spirit that will truly bring you happiness. And then verse 19, our second qualification. Walk in the wisdom of the Lord by uniting together in praise. Now I want you to see something that verse 19 introduces one of the two one another's. The one another's in Scripture are very helpful for us to think about as a church. They're the things we're supposed to be doing mutually together, praying for one another, singing with one another, submitting to one another. This one is the easier one of the two in this chapter, or this section, but still challenging. Paul says, speaking to one another, or addressing one another, Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody the Lord with your heart Well praise God we've we've joined together to sing this morning. We have fulfilled this commandment We encourage one another we build one another up as we come and we sing together We sing songs remind us of what God has done for us. We sing songs remind one another of the great calling we have now to live It's pretty amazing if you look at Revelation and There's going to be a song going on for all eternity. This isn't a rehearsal. We actually get to participate in that same song that praises Jesus now. We're not rehearsing for praise. We get to join in that eternal chorus, that eternal choir of praise, even now. Paul says here, address one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Now obviously, Paul has in mind psalms, that's 150 books of the Old Testament. Hymns, those are songs written between 1500 and 1970. And spiritual songs are the choruses sung after 1970. I've actually read that somewhere. I'm glad you all understood the humor of how ridiculous that is. I don't think Paul is saying have a variety of styles or songs. I think his point is whatever you sing, sing it together in praise of Jesus. The point isn't the styles, the point is the togetherness. We're singing it, we're addressing one another with what we sing all together up to praise to Jesus. It's that beautiful picture from Ephesians 4, 1 to 16. Growing up together and singing is one of the most effective ways we're gonna do that. And that just makes it pretty amazing how judgmental we can be about songs. It makes it amazing how we can look at certain songs or certain styles and judge them and judge people who sing them and say, well, they must be more mature because of that style of song. Now, let's be very sure God has given us all kinds of songs to sing. You can look through the Psalms themselves. God's ordained 150 songbook. And the styles vary. Sometimes he just goes on and on talking to God. I love you, I love you, I love you. You love me, you love me, you love me. Sometimes they weep and mourn. We should love singing songs together that stir up our affections so that we're praising him together. We don't come just to sing the songs we personally prefer. That's what your home entertainment system's for. Praise God, right? We can listen to whatever we want every other time. But when we come together, we're coming to sing songs together for praise. Let me try to compare this or contrast this with a concert. What we're talking about here is not a concert. See, a concert is an enthusiastic crowd of strangers who love the music and the band together. No, we're brothers and sisters who are walking, living life together, and we're coming to join to sing, not because of the band, but because of the one we're all singing about. Okay, it's not a concert. I also want to affirm something. It's harder than a concert. Because when we come in here, we know each other and we're known by each other. It makes it a little harder. We know and we're known. We know and we're known in sins and struggles and difficulty and drama. We have plenty of reasons to avoid each other. Because it's a body walking together. I want to say that's actually why it's better than a concert. We get to walk with one another and enjoy one another. We get to, if we persevere, share a sweet song together that's seasoned over time. The whole point is that we are supposed to know each other and be known. So we come together, we're thrilled that we sing with our brother and sister that we know is wrestling with that sin or repented of that sin or overcoming that sin or rejoicing in that stage of life. We get to think of one another. It's not just coming and closing your eyes and having a one-on-one with Jesus when we come. No, it's us praising God together. One of the things I love is when we're singing, I know who likes which songs sometimes. And I love thinking, that brother or sister, they're really enjoying this song right now. It may not be my favorite song, but I know they're enjoying it in a unique way. So we're supposed to come together and address one another in these songs, human spiritual songs, singing and making melody. to the Lord with all your heart. The direction of our song together is Jesus. He is the one clear object of our praise. And we can think about different songs that are actually in scripture, Philippians 2, Revelation 5, Colossians 1, all have a song sung. To whom is our unifier? It's Jesus, God Almighty who created us, who came down to walk among us, who died for us, who rose again, who now stands at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us. That's who we get to sing to. Our song is welcomed into the very presence of God. And so we sing with all our hearts. I don't think this is referring to singing with as much emotion as you can muster. I think it's talking about affection, love. Singing is one of the best ways to discipline your affection. Think about what you sing about. Think about how cultures have really been defined about what they really love based on their songs together. When we are singing of Jesus, when we're letting that melody control our minds and our hearts, we're disciplining our hearts so that we love Him more. One of the best ways for us to teach doctrine together, one of the most important ways we as elders think about sound doctrine being taught isn't from the pulpit as much as it is from the music. They both have to go hand in hand. But our songs are gonna tell you a whole lot about our theology. What do we prioritize? What do we emphasize? What do we think is important for our children? Let's make sure these songs are in their heads and their hearts. Songs of Christ, songs of God, songs that lead them to repentance. One of the ways you can do this is request the bulletin before the worship service. Meditate upon the words so that when you come, you're ready to sing these words together. Sing these at home with friends, with family. Come prepared. to worship. The next qualification he gives in walking with wisdom is giving thanks. Walking with wisdom by giving thanks. So we've seen power, praise, now thanks. It's interesting how Paul likes to slide this exhortation or actual command kind of everywhere in his epistles. Read through Colossians, he's just constantly sliding them in. Give thanks, be thankful. Here it's pretty universal. Give thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Notice it's not a generic thankfulness. It's specific. Thank you, Father. It's personal. One of the first things we just need to be praising God for and thanking God for is that we can know Him as Father. He's not distant. He's not idle. He's not some God somewhere who doesn't maybe care. He's a loving Father, the Father of lights, who doesn't change, the Father from whom every good and perfect gift comes down from. It's a unique prayer that we as Christians get to pray because we've been adopted in the Son Jesus Christ. Second, giving thanks always. It probably means we need to make sure we're being mindful of things we don't see with our eyes. We can go back to Ephesians 1 and see that at all times I can be thankful for what God has given to me. The blessings we have in Christ. We're redeemed. We're adopted. We're reconciled. We're forgiven. I fear we're too often like a married couple. There's a husband and he wants to take his wife on a date. So he shows up. He's got flowers. He's got candy. He says, all right, I've got a babysitter scheduled. I've got tickets to your favorite show. I've got dinner reservations. And she looks in the closet full of clothes and says, I don't have anything to wear. Let's just sit on the couch and watch TV. I hope that's not a real situation. But you get it. that the husband went out of his way to do so many loving things and she looks past them all and looks past all the clothes you wear and use that as an example to complain about something and give up thanking him for all the things he's done. Christian, I fear we're like that. We just get tunnel vision thinking we want this one thing, this one way, and God usually doesn't give us that one thing because that's usually identifying an idol. So we stop thanking God for all that He does because He's not giving us the one thing we're focused on. Give thanks always and for everything. Now He can't mean everything. I got a flat tire the other day. Am I supposed to thank God for that? Am I supposed to thank God that I didn't get the promotion? These things are difficult. I think everything means everything. The word actually means even when it's evil, even when things are not going well, even when the days are bad, give thanks because our Father is always good. Give thanks because our Father is always good. Now, our natural tendency is not to give thanks, is it? My natural tendency is not to give thanks. I love sliding down a nice spiral of cynical, sarcastic negativity. Nothing feels better when things are going poorly than to just comfort myself with how negative I can be. At some point, God always saves me out of that, and it seems like he's even asking a question. Can you not be thankful for anything? I've given you my son, and here you are murmuring, complaining. I've not withheld my own son. What would I withhold from you that's good? Can you not be thankful? This is part of being that watchful. That first command we looked at in verse 15, look carefully, be aware. An awareness of how good things are from God all the time leads to thankfulness. If we're not being thankful, we're probably not that aware of what God is doing. But give thanks. This is God's prescribed remedy for coveting, for discontentment. This is God's prescribed remedy for the idols of our heart to give thanks to Him. It means we have to have our expectations defined by God's word. And notice it says give thanks to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you have a difficult time being thankful, I encourage you to do two things. One, ask yourself what is making you so unhappy. And two, meditate upon the cross. You meditate upon the cross because you realize that's where happiness is found, because that is where peace from God was provided for you. I believe that's where we have to go to give thanks in the name of Christ, who died on the cross for us. There, we realize everything is good because God has given us His best gift. When we think about those two things together, we realize the things that don't make us happy, or the things that make us so unhappy, they're typically trivial at that point, aren't they? They're at least put in proper perspective. Those two questions go together. What makes me so unhappy? What did Christ do on the cross? Our final exhortation that modifies and qualifies what it means to walk aware in wisdom. Submitting to one another out of reference for Christ. This is his final exhortation before he goes on to very specific ways in which we're supposed to walk with wisdom. In marriage, in family, parent and child, and then in work. You can see there, if you have the blue sermon card in front of you, that those specific topics are what's next in walking in wisdom, following from this section. And before he goes there, he wants to make sure he addresses everyone's favorite Christian discipline, submission. You know, it's funny, I've never heard anyone say, you know, isn't submission the best? I've never had anyone ask me, could you find me a submission partner? Right? An accountability partner, maybe. But no, I really am lacking people to submit to. Would you recommend someone for me? We don't think about this that much. How much are we praying about it if this is a clear command in scripture? It's actually amazing how often this command in one way or another comes up. James 4, submit yourself to God and resist the devil, for God opposes the proud. 1 Peter 2, submit to earthly institutions. As Andrew prayed in the pastoral prayer, we're supposed to be submitting to those governing authorities. Romans 13, outdo one another in showing honor. Philippians 2. Consider others more important than yourselves. Consider others' interests more important than your own. Key idea there is humility, which is tied to submission. Galatians 5, serve one another humbly in love. 1 Peter 5, close yourself with all humility. 1 Corinthians 16, be subject to these, to every fellow laborer. James 3, 13. It's interesting how he ties in wisdom and humility here. James 3, beginning at verse 13. Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly and spiritual demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exists, there will be disorder in every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. So let's go back to this verse and realizing that this is a widespread command throughout scripture, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. And it's very clear, we're not supposed to be worried about who's not submitting to us, but who we're supposed to be submitting to. Let's define submit. Submitting to others is a posture towards them that prioritizes their thoughts desires and interest and is demonstrated by showing deference Submitting to others is a posture towards them that prioritizes their thoughts desires and interest and is demonstrated by showing Now, let's just make sure we understand the context of submission. Submission requires some kind of disagreement is taking place. If you only submit to people you agree with, you're not really submitting. Submission happens when there's a disagreement and you decide to prioritize their thoughts, and interest. When there's a disagreement, you decide, I'm going to trust that this other brother or sister knows better than me, that I might be wrong. And I'm going to defer. I'm going to let them make that decision or decide that issue and welcome them and love them. So what is submission and what is not? It's a posture that prioritizes your thoughts, desires, and interests. I think that's key. But let's also say what submission is not. First, submission does not make you in any way inferior. Notice here, it's a call to mutual submission. Submitting to one another. It actually puts us on the same playing ground. If anything, submitting actually makes you greater in the kingdom of God because of the way Christ has brought a transvaluation, and the one who serves is greater in the kingdom. But it does not make you inferior to submit, or to be called to submission. Secondly, submission does not make you robotical, as if what you now do is thoughtless. We're not called to thoughtless obedience. No, this is an intentional dying to self. It requires being filled with a spirit so all of your senses are fully aware so that you know where you should, in a disagreement, submit, show deference. There's a fully engaged heart, soul, and mind by the power of the spirit in submitting to one another. Third, submission does not mean you stop having convictions or opinions. No, it means you have brothers and sisters who are going to help you put those in proper order. So submission. It's closely tied to humility. It requires a humility. First before God, then men. It means I'm going to think about myself according to what God said. I'm going to think about others according to what God has said about them. There's one kingdom. All right, so now let's think more about the to one another. Submitting to one another, this is the way to be watchful and wise. Now, I have friends that I disagree with on their interpretation of this passage, and I just wanna address this very quickly. When I say friends, I mean faithful brothers and sisters that I disagree with. There's an interpretation that says what Paul means here is those who in the church should always be submitting to the leaders. that those who are taking on a special responsibility to lead, that's what Paul's actually talking about, kind of denying the mutualness. I kind of want to say it does mean that, but it means a lot more. We do need to realize that when someone is taking on a responsibility and leadership, that there is a submission that goes along with that. Let me give some examples for our own church. Tonight, Lord willing, we're going to appoint and pray for three specific positions. We introduced last week the nursery director. We're going to promote someone to the nursery director officially. She'll need submitting to. She'll need support. She'll need encouragement. She's showing people who want to actually follow with what she's seeking to do, realizing that there's 50 ways to run a nursery, and she's gonna choose one. We're going to appoint a music director. Someone who's gonna help us sing songs to fulfill verse 19, and that person's gonna fill a lot of gaps, and they're gonna need help. We're gonna appoint someone who's going to facilitate services to make sure the baptism's full and the door has handles and things like that. They're gonna need volunteers. They're gonna need support. One of the beautiful things about the kingdom, if we think about this, we think about service and submission in this way. We're all equally unqualified to be here. Because we've all rebelled against God. But yet, we've all been given that same equal invitation by the blood of Christ to come into the kingdom, and then when somebody says, would you serve in the kingdom? It's not, will you give up something? No, it's, will you invest your time in the kingdom work? See, I think we have a culture that might think of service in the wrong way. Service is glory in the kingdom of Christ. To be asked to serve is a glorious invitation. To be asked to submit to others is a glorious invitation. But it means more than that. There's a mutual submission that calls us to prioritize each other, to show deference to each other. And I first wanna say it's a closed circle. Believers. Those who already share that bond of peace of the Spirit, those who are already united together in Christ who share the same truths and expecting the Spirit to speak through one another. It means when we come, we're looking to say, how can I serve others rather than how can others serve me? It's very anti-consumer. The call to submit to one another looks to say, and I think one of the clearest passages that flushes this out is Philippians 2. Because of Christ, we consider others more important than ourselves and others' interests more important than our own. So why would you not do this? First, a fear of man. Let's just be honest. Submitting to others puts you in a vulnerable place. A fear of being disappointed, hurt, taken advantage of. It's a real fear. Don't want to deny that or ignore it. There's a real fear that when you come and posture yourselves the way Christ postured himself towards us, that you might get murdered as Christ was. It's a real problem in the church. Second, could just be an outright selfishness. I'm gonna look out for number one, because that's what history's taught me to do. That's the reason why you might not do this. But as our text says, the real reason why we're not going to do this if we don't, is that we have little reverence for Christ. Look at the reasoning. Submitting to one another, out of reverence for Christ. Our high view of Christ will lead us to a high view of wanting to serve and submit. The more we revere Christ, the less we fear being taken advantage of because we know Christ is purchased with His blood and He's going to care for us. When we revere Christ, our fear, our reverence for Him overcomes our fear of man. Reminds me of our great song, Amazing Grace. It was grace that taught my heart to fear. And grace my fears relieved. We're all controlled by fear. Reverence of some sort. It's a matter of being controlled by the fear of Christ. A reverence for Him that overcomes our other fears. Again, fear of the Lord, a reverence for the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It changes the way we posture ourselves towards the pursuit of happiness. It changes the way we come together, and what we praise, and how we relate to each other, and what we give thanks for if we don't give thanks, and how we relate to one another. If we go back, there's a lot of wisdom for how we're supposed to be conducting ourselves in a way that worships Christ. It's actually pretty amazing if we're constantly self-asserting, we're not showing reverence for Christ. But I also want us to see something. There's just a glorious doctrine of God here. Verse 20. We have a God that we get to call Father, and He gives good gifts. That means we can always be thankful. That the good gift He gave us is the one we pray, in the name we pray in, the Lord Jesus Christ. We sing His praise. We get to revere Him who came and submitted Himself to us by dying for us. He submitted Himself to man. They murdered Him so that we might not suffer the wrath of God. And then He gave us the Holy Spirit so that we might be filled with power to truly live that happy, wise life. Praise and thanks be to God. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you that we can reflect upon who you are, what you've done. Forgive us for having such little reverence for you. Forgive us for pursuing our foolishness. For believing the lies of this world that promise happiness that's unattainable. Lord, help us to be watchful. May we pursue being filled by your Spirit so that our senses are fully aware, the eyes of our heart fully enlightened to see all the good things you give to us, that we can give thanks for. To see how glorious it is to come together and sing your praise with all our hearts. So we're submitting to one another in a way that builds one another up. So that we're all growing up to maturity, Jesus Christ, in His name we pray. Amen.